Ask Zac!

Went to Judge Beans with my old buddy Chad that works with Brad Paisley. After eating brisket tacos and cowboy beans, we headed down to check out the guitar Brad played at the CMA awards earlier this week. Its a Bill Crook Tele-style with McVay G-Bender, and Kinman pickups. The bridge is the 48AVN model, and the middle is the 56 strat model. The colors are of course West Virginia all-the-way. Chad indicated that Brad used pretty much the middle pickup alone for the CMA performance. Here are some very crude photos that I took.

And here is a closeup of the body.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kenny Vaughan for Vintage Guitar Magazine earlier this year. He currently tours with Marty Stuart, but has been around Music City for many years. I can vividly remember seeing him play with Patty Loveless on Austin City Limits in the early 90’s. He was playing a green G&L Strat-style guitar, and put a new spin on one of her hits, “Blue Side Of Town.” Check out the interview in last month’s issue with Peter Frampton on the cover. Also, check out this shot that Jim Arndt took for it.

Nice boots!

Sometimes you get that fever. Its one that you must treat before it gets out of control. It’s pickup fever. I put some new Kinman pickups in my blonde Crook Tele, and a Baggs M1 in my Epiphone acoustic.

The Tele:

I had a very nice set of Hamel pickups in here, but had really gotten used to a quieter set up. I have a AVN Blues set in a Crook Strat, and had already put an AVN-48 bridge in my main Tele. I ordered a full set of the Broadcaster pickups, wired them in, and was very happy with the results. Fat sounding Tele pickups that don’t hum; how can you beat that? If you can see in the picture, Kinman wraps the bridge pickup in white cloth, and the neck pickup has a arched top to accomodate the staggered poles. Noisless or not, Kinman makes a great sounding Tele pickup. The noisless part means that the Front Of House engineer(soundman) likes them too.

I have had this Epiphone Masterbilt acoustic for a while, and have really enjoyed it. It is very well built, and has a smaller body, yet a 1 and 3/4 nut. This, along with a “V” neck make for a very comfortable guitar to play. I have really enjoyed taking it on trips, but kept running into times when I needed to be able to plug it in. Pondering all the choices available, I decided to try the Baggs M1. I have always wanted to try a sound hole pickup, and had only heard positive remarks about the M1. Installation was pretty easy except for drilling the end pin jack. Don’t try it unless you know what you are doing. You can easily crack the tail-block of your instrument.

I am very happy with both the tone, and the new look of this guitar.